Mumbai muncipality's budget is bigger than these states — how India’s largest civic body earns and spends
With a budget surpassing even some states, Mumbai's BMC outlines its financial prowess and spending priorities. As elections approach, understanding the BMC's revenues and expenditures reveals how this civic body maintains its infrastructure and services amidst growing demands.
VOTING for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the BMC, is scheduled for 15 January. More than 15,000 candidates are in the fray.
In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) alone, 1,700 candidates are contesting in 227 wards to control India's richest civic body, which has an over ₹74,000 crore budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
On 4 February 2025, the BMC presented its budget of ₹74,427 crore for the fiscal year 2025-26. This was its largest-ever budget, up about 14 per cent from the previous year’s estimates.
In the absence of an elected house, the civic body has been under the administration of an administrator since the term of the corporators ended on 7 March 2022.
The February budget comprised ₹43,166 crore as the capital expenditure, which is 58% of the total budget.
Exceeds the total budget of many states
The BMC’s ₹74,427 crore budget, although municipal, is larger than the entire budgets of Goa, Sikkim and Tripura, where state governments are responsible for services such as health, education, police, infrastructure and welfare.
In Goa, for example, the overall budget for 2025-26 was ₹28,162 crore, while it was ₹39,842 crore for Arunachal Pradesh and ₹58,514 crore for Himachal Pradesh, ₹16,196 crore total expenditures forecast (state budget 2025-26) for Sikkim and ₹31,412 crore state expenditure estimate (2025-26) for Tripura.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) proposed a ₹16,530 crore budget for 2026-27, focusing on sanitation, health, and infrastructure with no new taxes. Bengaluru's civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has passed a budget of approximately ₹19,930 crore for the fiscal year 2025-26.
The BMC, also known as the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.
Established under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act of 1888, the BMC is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city, as well as some suburbs.
The BMC was formed with the function of improving the city's infrastructure.
BMC Earnings
BMC has seen a steady rise in earnings over the past few years, driven largely by fees, taxes, development charges and investment income. The civic body’s revenue base and fixed deposits are significantly higher than those of most other municipalities, contributing to a substantially larger budget capacity.
BMC's revenue income, which forms a major part of its finances, for 2024-25 was revised from ₹35,749.03 crore to ₹40,693.85 crore in the last budget. The actual revenue collected until 31 December 2024 stood at ₹28,308.37 crore.
For 2025-26, the BMC estimated revenue income of about ₹43,159.40 crore, which is 20.73% higher than the initial estimates for 2024-25.
The revenue from property taxes has seen an upward trend. In 2024-25, the initial budget estimate for property tax collection was ₹4,950 crore, but it was revised to ₹6,200 crore. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, the budget estimate for property tax revenue was ₹5,200 crore.
BMC Spending
The development of infrastructure, including roads, bridges, sewage lines, public health management, education, security, and employee wages and pensions, constitutes the largest chunk of the BMC's expenditure.
In 2024, BMC invested 47% of its revenue in infrastructure in Mumbai. In the last 10 years, it has spent ₹11,1600 crore on the city's upkeep and upgrade.
The 2025-26 budget for BMC saw a revenue increase of ₹7,410 crore from the previous year. As many as ₹43,166 crore or 58% of the total budget capital expenditure
At least 10% of the budget is for healthcare services. Among other things, such as schools and education-related infrastructure, the BMC decided to install 100 battery-operated suction machines in its 24 wards.
Between 2012-13 and January 2025, ₹ 11,304.59 crore had been allocated to Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) as financial assistance.
A grant of ₹1000 crore was proposed for BEST for the 2025-26 period. An amount of ₹992 crore was sanctioned by the 15th Finance Commission for the purchase of electric buses. Out of this, ₹493.38 crore had already been received and disbursed to the BEST Undertaking.
